The Grand Tour - Travelling the World with an Architect's EyeBy Harry Seidler

Architect Harry Seidler has spent more than 50 years
traveling the globe, extensively photographing the peak
achievements in architecture from 3000 B.C. to the present
day.

Thanks to sound advice given to him early on by his photographer
brother, Marcell ("Only use Leica cameras and Kodachrome film,
which is archival"), Seidler's hobby quickly developed into a
passion and, finally, an impressive archive of world
architecture.

Including many of the world's most famous architectural
structures, Seidler's photographs illustrate the history and style
- country by country - of architecture in Europe, the Middle East,
Asia, and the Americas.

Finland Helsinki, National Museum,
1902-10
Architect: Eliel Saarinen

The Museum has a finely carved granite facade, especially a
bear, which is a finnish symbol.

Germany Alfeld, Faguswerke, 1911
Architect: Walter Gropius

A glass "curtain wall" building revolutionary for its time,
covering the floors and structure, except for the expressed
columns.

Italy Rome, St. Peters Basilica, 16th and
17th Century
Designed successively by a number os architects, Donato Bramante,
Michelangelo and Carlos Maderno.

The focus of the enormous interior in Bernini's Baldachino
supported by twisted bronze columns (looted from the Pantheon)
under the great dome.

Egypt Gizeh, Pyramids of Cheops, 2250
BC

The very icons of ancient Egypt, these giant minimal sculptures
stand in a sandy desert area near Cairo. Originally, the pyramids
were covered in finely finished limestone with the peak reputed to
have been covered in gold. All of this, however, was pillaged over
the centuries.

Overlooking a river edge, the street approach leads over an
inclined ramp into the open central space, to the offices and
meeting halls. Both east and west facades are protected from the
strong sunlight by brise-soleil. The form-boarded concrete gives a
rugged texture to the entire structure.

Japan Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture,
1955-58
Architect: Kenzo Tange

Solidly built of exposed textured concrete, the modern office
building recalls traditional Japanese ponds with sculptural stone
blocks. The projecting concrete floor beams are reminiscent
of early timber structures.

Russia Moscow, Kremlin, Archangel
Cathedral

Peru Machu Picchu

The Inca city high up in the Andes Mountains with houses and
agricultural terraces ingeniously connected by long flights of
stone steps.

USA New York, Rockefeller Center,
1929-40

Simultaneously with the Empire State and the Chrysler Tower,
this landmark of New York was built during the Great Depression. It
consists of nine various height buildings with the 70-storey RCA
Tower its centrepiece.

Divided into chapters by country, each with a brief introduction
outlining its architectural history, "The Grand Tour" offers
armchair travelers, students, architecture buffs, and historians
the opportunity to browse the buildings of the world through one
man's photographs - the fruits of a passionate, half-century
endeavor.

Born in Vienna, Austria, Harry Seidler studied architecture at
the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg before winning a scholarship
to Harvard, where he studied under Walter Gropius. He also studied
under Josef Albers at Black Mountain College in North Carolina and
was the chief assistant of Marcel Breuer in New York from 1946 to
1948. He worked with Oscar Niemeyer in Rio de Janeiro before
opening his own practice in Sydney in 1949. He has taught at the
Harvard School of Design, the ETH in Zurich, and the University of
Sydney. In 1996, Seidler was awarded the RIBA gold medal.